User:Alyssalego/One-child policy

“Wan, Xi, Shao”:

The "Wan, Xi, Shao" (“later, longer, and fewer”) slogan emerged during the 1970s as a response to China's rapid population growth, which was viewed as a major obstacle to the country's economic and social development. This slogan encapsulates three key principles: marrying later (wan 晚), spacing pregnancies longer (xi 稀), and having fewer children (shao 少) and was emblematic of China’s national campaign of mandatory birth planning. .The Chinese government aimed to reduce population growth by promoting guidelines for birth control and family planning. The government believed that having fewer children and spacing births more adequately would allow families to allocate more resources per child, resulting in better health and education outcomes for children. The policy achieves this by allowing parents more time and resources to invest in each child’s health and education, as they have fewer children to care for.

The slogan was part of China's "longer, later, fewer" campaign, which was later replaced by the one child policy. According to Whyte and colleagues, many of the coercive techniques that became notorious after the one-child policy was launched actually date from this “longer, later, fewer” campaign of the 1970s.

During the campaign, the state bureaucracy was in charge of enforcing birth control and oversaw birth planning workers in every village, urban work unit, and neighborhood. These workers kept detailed records on women of child-bearing age, including past births, contraceptive usage, and menstrual cycles, often becoming "menstrual monitors" to detect out-of-quota pregnancies. In some factories, there were quotas for reproduction, and women who did not receive a birth allotment were not supposed to get pregnant.

Women who became pregnant without permission were harassed to get an abortion, with pressure also on their husbands and other family members. Families were threatened that, if they persisted in having an over-quota birth, the baby would be denied household registration, which would mean denial of ration coupons, schooling, and other essential benefits that depended upon registration. In rural areas, women who gave birth to a third child were pressured to get sterilized or have IUDs inserted, while urban women were trusted to continue using effective contraception until they were no longer fertile.

Official statistics show that birth control operations, including abortions, IUD insertions, and sterilizations, increased sharply during the 1970s in association with the campaign to enforce birth limits. These drastic increases in birth-control operations suggest that highly coercive birth planning enforcement was already prevalent in both rural and urban areas, preceding the launching of the one-child policy. However, during the 1970s, the Chinese government was still concerned that the “Wan, Xi, Shao” policy would not reduce the growing population sufficiently. They felt the population would grow too fast to be supported, and a one-child policy for all families was introduced in 1979.

Addition to existing “Propaganda” section

The “one-child campaign” extensively used propaganda posters. The aim of the posters was to promote the policy, encourage compliance with the policy, and emphasize the benefits of having fewer children. Many of the posters, like the one below, were educational in nature, paying attention to reproduction, sexuality, and conception. They were produced by various government departments, ranging from ministries of health to local population policy centers. The below poster, from the 1980s, educated couples about the birth control methods available to them. This poster features IUDs, external contraceptives, and sterilization.

To convey the idea that couples should only have one child, the “one-child campaign” utilized traditional visual elements from nianhua (New Year prints) that were popular among the people. Traditionally, these prints employ visual symbols to convey good wishes for the coming new year. In the prints, young children are often portrayed with pink, chubby cheeks to symbolize the success of family reproduction and a hopeful future. As such, one-child policy propaganda posters like the one below often depicted chubby baby boys and gold carp, which appealed to both rural and urban populations. Even without slogans promoting the idea that "one is better," these pictures were effective in attracting people's attention, establishing a link between luck and prosperity associated with the New Year and the OCP. Using traditional elements of nianhua prints like chubby, healthy-looking babies in one-child policy propaganda resonated with people – making them believe that compliance with the policy would yield luck, good fortune, and healthy offspring. As the “one-child campaign” progressed, the policy was linked to national development and wealth. It was considered directly linked to the success of the policy of modernization and reform. This is seen through the below poster, which reads “Do a good job in family planning to promote economic development.” The 1986 poster, depicting a mother holding up her baby daughter against a blue sky, projects an ideal image of a strong mother freed from the exhaustion of caring for many children. With one child, she can concentrate her time and energy on raising the child and playing an active role in China’s economic development. The power lines and skyscrapers in the background suggest changes brought about by the industrial development in the rural mountainous areas. The birds flying in the sky suggest that the mother and her one child are free, symbolizing their limitless future in the transformation of Chinese society – explicitly linked to the aims of the one-child policy. Women’s Experiences and Perceptions of the One-Child Policy:

Women's experiences of the one-child policy in China have shaped their perceptions on the policy and both of which have been studied extensively by researchers. These studies have revealed a variety of perspectives on the policy. While some women viewed the policy as beneficial, particularly in terms of providing better educational and employment opportunities for their children, others experienced significant negative effects, including gender-based discrimination, psychological distress, and social stigma, that occurred as a byproduct of the policy.

One study by Greenhalgh et al. (2005) has found that many urban women in China perceived the one-child policy as positive, as it allowed them to have greater control over their reproductive health and career trajectories. These women also valued the educational and economic opportunities afforded to their single child, which were seen as providing a pathway out of poverty and towards upward mobility.

However, the same study also found that women's perceptions of the one-child policy were heavily influenced by their social and economic circumstances. For example, women who were unable to afford the fines associated with violating the policy were more likely to form negative perceptions, as were women who faced pressure from their families to have a male child.

Another study by Poston and Glover (2005) found that women in rural China were more likely to view the one-child policy as negative. These women reported experiencing significant pressure to have a male child, and those who were unable to do so faced social stigma and discrimination. In addition, women who violated the policy by having a second child were subject to fines, job loss, and other penalties, which could have significant economic and social consequences.

A study by Mosher (2012) found that women who underwent forced abortions or sterilizations as a result of the one-child policy experienced significant psychological distress, including depression, anxiety, and trauma. These women reported feeling violated and traumatized by the forced abortions and sterilizations that occurred as a byproduct of the one-child policy. Such experiences could have long-lasting effects on their mental health and wellbeing.

Taken together, these studies suggest that women's diverse perceptions of the one-child policy were based on their experiences with the policy. These experiences were heavily dependent on women’s social and economic circumstances, which led to varied perceptions and attitudes on the policy. While some women perceived the policy as positive, particularly in urban areas, others experienced significant negative effects, including psychological distress and social stigma.

Impact on elder care

China's one-child policy had significant implications for many aspects of Chinese society, including the care for elderly populations. In “Gender and elder care in China: the influence of filial piety and structural constraints,” authors Zhan and Montgomery suggest that the decline of traditional family support networks began with the establishment of work units in the socialist period. These collectives were meant to offer healthcare and housing to their workers. With the economic reforms of the 1980s and 1990s, many of the work units dissolved, leaving many elderly workers without the social support they once had. This was exacerbated by the one-child policy, because many families now only had one child to care for elderly parents, leading to increased pressure and responsibility for the sole caregiver. This section will explore the impact of China's one-child policy on elder care and support networks.

According to a study by Gustafson (2014), the one-child policy has led to a significant decrease in the availability of family caregivers for the elderly in China. So, tens of millions of retirees now only have one child to rely on for care. This has led to an “inverted pyramid,” in which two sets of elderly parents must rely on a single married couple of two adult children (each of whom is an only child with no siblings), who in turn have produced a single child on whom the family must eventually rely on in the next generation.

The one-child policy in China has had a significant impact on filial piety and elder care. Filial piety is a traditional Confucian value that emphasizes respect, obedience, and care for one's parents and elders. However, the one-child policy has led to a smaller pool of potential caregivers for elderly parents, and has also contributed to a shift in attitudes toward elder care.

One study found that the one-child policy has led to a decline in filial piety in China, as fewer children are responsible for caring for their elderly parents. The study also found that the one-child policy has led to a shift in the responsibility for elder care from the family to the state. For example, Feng argues that, in recent years, the Chinese government has increased efforts to build residential elder care services by actively promoting the construction of senior housing, homes for the aged, and nursing homes. This includes government-sponsored subsidies to spur construction and operation of new facilities. In recent years, the Virtual Elder Care Home gained popularity, which features home care agencies providing a wide range of personal care and homemaker services in elders’ homes. Services are initiated by phone calls to a local government–sponsored information and service center, which then directs a qualified service provider to the elder’s home.Participating providers contract with the local government and are reimbursed for services purchased by the government on behalf of eligible care recipients. While these programs are mainly centered in urban areas, current policy directives in rural areas favor institutions by encouraging “centralized support and care” in rural homes that are run and subsidized by the local government. For rural elders who do not have the option to turn to residential facilities, many have resorted to signing a “family support agreement” contract with adult children to ensure needed support and care.

Furthermore, another study found that the one-child policy has had a significant impact on the quality of elder care in China, with many elderly parents reporting feeling neglected and abandoned by their adult children. This is due to a lack of resources and support from the younger generation.

“Little Emperors”

In urban areas especially, a byproduct of the one-child policy has been changing family dynamics. Traditionally, grandparents have traditionally been the focal point of the family in China: they were adored by all family members, and were the ones who exercised decision-making in the day-to-day life of the family. Feng suggests that the implementation of the OCP and the resulting numbers of one-child families have greatly reduced the multigenerational family form and has weakened the central position of elders in the family. Feng also suggests that the one-child policy has caused parents to spend less leisure time alone, and more leisure time with their children. Feng writes, “[t]he children tend to rely more so on their parents as companions and to participate together in recreational activities.” And he continutes, “[t]his has promoted an equality in the parent-child relationship and has restricted to a certain extent the interactions of children with others.” In the one-child family, the core is the parent-child relationship and research suggests that the husband-wife relationship has been less emphasized and cultivated as a result. In China, the one-child policy has been associated with the term "little emperor," which describes the perceived effects of parents focusing their attention exclusively on their only child. The term gained popularity as a way to suggest that only children may become "spoiled brats" due to the excess attention they receive from their parents.

A study by Cameron and colleagues has explored this phenomenon, finding that the one-child policy had behavioral impacts on only children. The authors tested Beijing youths born in several birth cohorts just before and just after the launch of the one-child policy using economic games designed to detect differences in desirable social behaviors like trust and altruism. The study found that only children in China were more likely to exhibit narcissistic and selfish behavior compared to those with siblings. The study also found that only children had higher levels of academic achievement, but lower levels of social competence and empathy. Overall, these findings suggest that the one-child policy had unintended social and psychological consequences that may have lasting effects on Chinese society as a whole.

Other scholarship supports that the “little emperor” phenomenon does exist. Jiao and colleagues compared children between the ages of four and ten from urban and suburban areas of Beijing using peer ratings of cooperativeness, leadership, and other desirable traits. When they analyzed a matched sample of only children and children with siblings from similar backgrounds, they reported constant patterns in which the only children were rated less positively.

However, researchers Chen and Jin outline some of the arguably positive byproducts of this “little emperor” phenomenon. They suggest that, since one-child children are receiving more attention and resources from their parents, it can lead to improved academic performance and overall success in life.